


i lost you to the universe

by captainsflyboy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Heroic Sacrifice, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 05:17:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15722748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainsflyboy/pseuds/captainsflyboy
Summary: Hunk takes a deep breath. “A supernova. We can take it to a dying star. Make sure the monster stays there until the star explodes and it dies with it. We can try to wake up Lance and form Voltron again. Then we’ll use the giant propellers — the ones that brought us here — to go there. It could work,” he says, voice hitching on all the wrong syllables.Everyone goes silent at the implication. Dying star. Explosion. It’s a one way ticket to nowhere.In which Keith leaves to save the day, because why sacrifice five lives if just one will do?





	i lost you to the universe

By the time they manage to neutralise the rabid quintessence monster, nobody has any energy left to spare.  

Atlas is back to its original form and Shiro is barely able to stand. He sees Voltron standing in front of them, placing itself in between the monster and Atlas. Voltron’s sword is still embedded deep inside the monster, skewering one of its limbs and body — heart — together. He can tell from the sluggishness of Voltron’s movement, the ragged breaths over the intercom, that they’re also hanging by a thread.

It’s a thought proven to be true when the figure breaks in five. He hears Allura scream for Lance.

“Is he alright?” Veronica asks, panic in her voice.

Coran pulls up a display of their pilots’ vitals. “He’s still breathing, but unconscious,” he says. “Lance must have taken the brunt of it since it’s his Lion’s life force that’s powering the blade.”

“So, what now?” Pidge asks. Shiro looks as her on the display. Her nose is bleeding and she’s cradling her left arm. If the fight took so much from Lance it’s no wonder she’s also injured to this extent.

His eyes scan over the other Paladins. Hunk and Allura are relatively unscathed albeit looking worse for wear. No blood to be seen, which is good in his books. Lance is unconscious and lilting to the side but thankfully he’s also not bleeding out.

He looks at the video inside the Black Lion. There’s blood running down Keith’s face, his left eye shut because of it, his hair plastered on his pale skin. Black took a massive hit from the Komar’s robot just before the quintessence monster arrived. For a split second there he thought he was going to lose Keith into thin air, the same way Keith lost him in their battle against Zarkon. The attack felt familiar in a way that burns too close for comfort.

Shiro’s flesh hand moves to brush Keith’s hair away through the display before he stops himself. It’s silly — the thought, the impulse — especially when universal peril is in the background.

“We need to get it out of here,” Keith says. “A fair distance away from here. You’ve seen how it moves. We can’t risk having to fight it all over again, not like this.”

Keith’s right, of course. The monster came out of nowhere, took Voltron for a spin around the  _ solar system _ , before they were finally able to pin it down and paralyse it with the blazing sword. Even right now they’re racing against time. 

The creature is squirming restlessly like something from a nightmare. Shiro can see it try to dislodge the sword as its other appendages are trying to heal. Once it breaks free, it will just start to regenerate from its core again and all the effort that’s gone into getting it to this stage will be for naught. 

“But how? As powerful as Atlas is, it doesn’t have the ability to create a wormhole for us to kick that monster through. That monster needs to be exiled to a place that it can never escape from.”

Allura pipes up, “Some place like the quintessence field? That would be ideal, but the only reason we were able to do it last time was because Lotor had opened up the portal for us. We can’t access the quintessence field without some kind of way to get in.”

“If we can’t contain the creature in a space separated from our universe, then the only other option is to completely destroy it until no trace of it’s left,” Shiro says. “Coran, are we able to power the cannons?”

Coran tinkers with his dash before replying, “Negative, Captain. Even at full power such force would take everything from us, but now? We don’t even have enough reserve to fire a laser.”

Shiro tsks. They don’t have much time. They don’t have Voltron. Atlas is nothing but a glorified accessory right now, with all of its cannons down and shield non-operational.

“I have an idea,” Hunk starts, voice small. “But…”

He sounds scared.

“What is it, Hunk?”

Hunk takes a deep breath. “A supernova. We can take it to a dying star. Make sure the monster stays there until the star explodes and it dies with it. We can try to wake up Lance and form Voltron again. Then we’ll use the giant propellers — the ones that brought us here — to go there. It could work,” he says, voice hitching on all the wrong syllables.

Everyone goes silent at the implication. Dying star. Explosion. It’s a one way ticket to nowhere.

“Okay. Okay,” Pidge is the first one to break the shock. She’s shaking like a leaf. “If that’s our only chance. We’ll, uh, we’ll wake up Lance—”

“No, we’re not doing that,” Keith orders with finality in his voice. For a second there a tiny flame in Shiro’s heart sparks with hope that Keith, ever amazing and brave and beautiful, will once again tell death to stick one up its ass. But that feeling is soon replaced with dread even colder than before, because this is what he hears next: 

“We don’t need Voltron. There’s no telling if Lance can even be with us right now. We’re also collectively pretty beat up and there’s no guarantee that all five of us will be able to travel that far,” he says. “Black can teleport across the universe. I can still feel her energy calling out to me. She’s telling me she knows where to take the monster away.”

“But, Keith! That means—”

“It’s alright, Pidge,” Keith reassures her. 

_ It’s not alright, _ Shiro wants to protest. Not with the way that Keith’s smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Forced, without a dimple in sight. Brows furrowed like he’s swallowed something bitter. The little tells Shiro’s been cataloguing secretly in his memory will now haunt him for life.

Shiro knows what Keith must be thinking. Even if Voltron could transform and carry them all across, there’s no need to do so if they can sacrifice just one life instead of five. 

Pidge is still too young, too bright a future ahead of her. She has her brother, mother and father waiting for her to come home safe. Hunk and Lance and their big family who depend on them to do well. Younger siblings, nieces and nephews who look up to them. Allura, a princess, too precious to this universe to be sacrificed.

More than Shiro’s own selfishness, it breaks his heart that even now, even after having found a family that loves him unconditionally, Keith still thinks he’s the most dispensable among them.

It’s Keith’s voice that breaks Shiro’s trance. “I’m locking in the coordinates,” he says, punching things on his dash and readying his bayard. 

Shiro hears something akin to a sob. He’s not sure if it’s his own or someone else’s.

He realises belatedly that the deck has fallen completely silent. Everyone eyeing him like they expect him to say something captainly for their hero’s send-off. 

He chokes. His mind comes up blank. He can’t feel anything except for the rapid thumping of his heartbeat, the burning sensation of his eyes, the dryness of his mouth, the wetness down his cheeks.

What  _ can _ you say, when the man who’s fetched you from death is going back there, alone?

_ Let me go with you, _ he wants to beg, but he is Atlas now. His people need him to fly and yet he’s never felt so flightless before. 

“Shiro,” Keith calls. “Shiro, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? Just come back safe.”

Keith looks at him for a second too long and simultaneously too short. “I’ll try,” he says placatingly, his voice soft like they’re sharing a secret. Shiro wants to scream.

Black dives and starts to move up closer to the monster from below it. Her engines are whirring loudly. Her wings are open and she’s glowing white and purple. She’s preparing for lift-off.

“Keith!” he calls out, hurriedly loud like a gunshot.

The Lion pauses. “Yeah, Shiro?”

“I love you.” 

Shiro wishes he’d said the words before this, when they had time to cherish each other, somewhere without an audience. But there are no what if’s now, just what’s in front of him, and it’s this: the love of his life, another hero that will get away.

“I love you, too,” Keith replies, and after a while, adds: “Please don’t wait for me.”

Before Shiro even has time to process a response, Black flies up with startling speed. He can’t see the Lion’s shape anymore, just a streak of purple in the sky. 

He looks at his monitor instead, scrambling to commit to memory whatever he can, but Keith’s video feed is engulfed in purple and white light until it suddenly turns into static.

**Author's Note:**

> come visit me @ [twitter](https://twitter.com/treaclyena) or [tumblr](https://treaclyena.tumblr.com)! :)


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